André Tourigny gives insight into the Utah Mammoth’s offseason ahead of the 2025-26 NHL season
[Music] Your home for the best coverage of the Jazz, youths, and Cougars is right here on The Zone. This is JJ and Alex, presented by G2G Bars on 975, the KSL Sports Zone. All right, everyone. Welcome back. It is JJ and Alex 975 the KSL Sports Zone. Alex Cury, Jeremiah Jensen down in Vegas, so I’m going to give him a pass on this one and I’ll just take this interview all for myself. It’s fine. I don’t have any problem with it either. Joining us in studio, first time of the season, which means of course we’re getting close to hockey season and it is the coach Andre Barry joining us in studio again as he uh did all last season, but now officially coach with the gear on and officially the head coach of the Utah Mammoth. Uh first time we’ve been able to uh introduce you that way. Jav liked all of the the different changeovers. You knew it was going to happen. You knew it was going to be something and the colors were going to stay about the same, but now it’s legit. You have a you have a team mascot and and you’re the head coach of the Mammoth. Yeah. Like I said during the season, what I like I like the process. I like the fact it’s the fans who pick the the name. So what you want, you want to create that relationship with the fans. You want to create that feeling of belonging and everything. So having them them picking the the name, I think that is uh that’s pretty cool. I think now we fight for the name they they uh they choose and I think that helped to create that feeling of belonging. You know, I think with all the times we chatted with you last year, something that you always brought up was, “Hey, I’m gonna let Bill and his guys figure out what we’re going to look like on this roster and then I’m going to take those guys as far as we can take those guys.” How much of how much input do you have with and when you’re when you’re chatting with these guys and you when you’re planning some things out because your roster has a a mix of a lot of some new guys and then some of the some of those youngsters that have taken you guys so far. When you look at the roster top to bottom, how much does it differ from last year compared to with what you were dealing with then with now? It seems like it’s kind of a nice blank canvas for you. Yeah, you know, it’s um there there’s there’s improvement will come from three front me the improvement will come from addition. Purka, Schmidt, Tanv, Venichek that that is for sure that’s an improvement. There’s young player who are coming as well who are pushing guys like shev boot and and others who are trying to to push for a place in the lineup. That’s another place we can improve. But there’s as well the internal growth there the the Kool-Aid and the Gunner and I won’t name everybody but all the player are getting a year older. We’re really young team. So now a year for a young team like us it’s it’s huge. It’s it’s a lot of uh a lot of experience, a lot of uh uh growth, a lot of maturity who uh who will come in the balance. So I think that is uh all all those three things will make us much better. You have uh an interesting setup at at the goalending position. You’ve got a lot of names there. Obviously Veggie’s going to be that number one guy. What does the rest of the of the roster look like? And now with with Connor coming back and being able to be cleared from the league and how do you guys balance out what that’s going to look like because it’s going to be very competitive between the pipes. Exactly. That that everywhere I think if you look at on the back end the addition of Schmid at a group who was already good. Um, we had to there’s a price to pay when you want to get a guy like Peturka, but the addition of of Schmidt will make up for for the loss of Cass and we have Shimashev who’s coming in and we have Simmer and we have already all our veterans. So it will be really competitive on the back end and I can go up front and talk about the same thing the way Yami Yamamoto played last year at the end of the season. KS coming back Obie and other plenty of other young player who will push for roster spot plus the veteran we have. I think that will be extremely it will be the the best and the most competitive we we had not just for making the team. It will be to make the roster and then to have the role you want. So everybody wants to grow their role. There will be a lot of competition and there’s competition and that’s what brings out the best in these guys, right? So when that when you sit down and you and you mentioned Simichev and boot and TJ Ginlaw obviously is a name that people are going to hear, but the reality is is that developing those guys and not putting them into a situation too early is a it’s a big deal. You don’t you want to make sure they earn that spot before they’re there. I agree with that. But what determine that is them at the end of the day. You know what I mean? It’s a You don’t want to rush them, but if they earn it, they earn it. That I I’m And I hate put a lid on on on a player say that that’s the max you can do. No, just you know, we all watch the last dance. You would you want to put a lid on Michael Jordan? You know, you you don’t do that. You just let him let him be and if he prove you wrong, prove you wrong. That’s it. So, that’s the way I like to do to to be with the player. You’ve got a a couple of Michael Jordans, I feel like, on this roster, but let’s talk about your captain, uh, Clayton Keller. What did he learn last year with that C on the chest and and kind of the the things that come with all of that? Because asking guys to be phenomenal hockey players, they’ve they’ve done that role before, but then asking them to come in there and then kind of attach a leadership role to it. What does that look like in an NHL locker room? There there’s a few layer to your question. First of all, he did a an amazing job. I think last year I remember talking to you and others saying hey okay how how that will affect him well you answer best best point production in his career that’s pretty good pretty good yeah nice start nice start you know that’s a but b his leadership was I I really think Kels was ready we could have done it a year earlier or two or whatever but I’m not sure that will have been the same result he was ready was groomed he uh we had several discuss discussion and then when it happened, it did not happen like a a cannon in the in the room or whatever. It was just everybody expected it. Everybody knew the direction we were going or it will go. So I think it it was pretty smooth and he he was ready for it. He uh he uh he showed a lot of maturity, a lot more maturity and he was a good leader for us and a good example. You know, when we talk about our organization, what we want to be all about is maximize our potential. We want to every day want to maximize our potential. Want to do our job. We want to do as best as we can every day. Not not on this game on November 18 or on this game on February 1st. No, no, every day. And Kel is obsessed by improvement. He’s obsessed by his growth. And I think he’s a great example for the rest of our team. Uh, you know, it’s a it’s awesome to see the new names coming in and and obviously a lot of those guys have a lot of years of development in front of them, but last year was that was the year that you guys talked about so many times. Anytime we’d get you talking about it or or or Bill Armstrong talking about it, it was it was always a conversation of we’ve been building up through all of this to finally get to the point where we’re going to be a playoff competitive team. Everybody wants to ask that question if you guys now that you’ve had this off season and I don’t know anybody who works as hard as you do because I remember at the end of the year was like no I’m still in my office man like we’re like hey you on vacation cuz all the other guys in all the other sports they leave early you’re like no I’m in my office and that’s where I’m going to be and that’s where we’re working and and I would assume all of the summer was development development development watching guys and make sure you’re you’re on board. How do you guys turn that corner this year then now? Because I think fans and people are are excited and there’s a little bit of that expectation to get to that to that playoff spot. If if you want to get to the summit of Everest, how you do it? One step at a time. You you don’t you don’t you don’t arrive at the the first stage and you say, “Hey, tomorrow I will get to the top.” That’s not the way it happened. You need to one step at a time and you get there. So we feel in the last four years we made step. We get we went to the next station. We the next station and next station and we believe that’s the next station for us. We believe we’re we’re getting there. We’re getting at at the at the point where uh we need to squeeze a little bit uh everything we get. But we think we we have it. We think we have a lot of talent. You you mentioned it. Yeah. We have young talent. We have young player which last year it showed that moment where it’s 1-1 in the game late in the third per against those veteran team against those Winnipeg and Dallas and Vegas and LA and those kind of team where we were right there with them all the time but we made one extra mistake. We lack a little bit of patient in those situation and we paid for it. So we learn from it. You cannot just go in those situation and uh be being hurt and not learning about it. No, doesn’t mean it won’t happen again but it has to happen way less and then those are a few points there and our growth in uh like because we have young player give you a few more points here and there. So hopefully that’s the recipe and we can push the card across the line. Coach Bear Touriy nice enough to join us on a Friday, which of course all last year he did and to be able to give us those insights into the Utah Mammoth and this team. We’re excited about how this thing’s going to go. The rookies all getting together for the showcase and that roster looks exciting. I bet you look again, I think with the way you guys look at at prospects and guys we don’t know. You guys get excited about guys we it’s just too many names for us to understand and see. Exactly. And I think that you guys being able to see what you have talent-wise, we’re excited to see what the preseason’s going to bring, what camp is going to bring, and when these guys all get together. Uh we really love chatting with you, coach. Thanks for being with us on the program today. I appreciate it. Thanks for your time and thanks for having me. Absolutely. We’ll take another break here. We’ll come back. Our football Fridays continue. Bear Tory nice enough to join us uh this Friday and he’ll join us throughout the season at different times and give us some insights into this Utah Mammoth team. Stay right here dialed in, your home of the Utah Mammoth. It is 975 the KSL sports zone.
André Tourigny, Utah Mammoth head coach, joins the program to check in for the Utah Mammoth’s offseason and breaks down his team ahead of the 2025-26 NHL season.
